Czech Leader’s Call to ‘Liquidate’ Journalists Was a Joke, His Office Says

President Milos Zeman of the Czech Republic in Beijing on Sunday. His comments about journalists caused an immediate uproar as they reverberated through social media on Monday.Credit
Pool photo by Lintao Zhang

PRAGUE — Milos Zeman, the president of the Czech Republicsince 2013, is no stranger to controversy. He once suggested that vegetarians and teetotalers should be put to death — and then added that he was referring to Hitler, who abstained from alcohol and meat. He has referred to news reporters as “manure” and “hyenas.” He has called Islam a “religion of death.”

Mr. Zeman’s latest incendiary remark came on Sunday. In Beijing for an international conference to discuss Beijing’s $1 trillion “One Belt, One Road” plan to shake up the global economic order, Mr. Zeman was chatting with Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, when he appeared to suddenly suggest that journalists be killed.

“And here are other journalists?” Mr. Zeman asked in Russian, as the two presidents walked to a news conference. “There are too many journalists.”

The audio was fuzzy, but Mr. Zeman was clearly heard talking of a “need to liquidate” the journalists.

The comments caused an immediate uproar as they reverberated through social media on Monday. “I strongly dislike the comment, regardless if he said it to Putin or anybody else,” Lubomir Zaoralek, the foreign minister, said. “It is something very misplaced, and I am being very diplomatic here.”

The culture minister, Daniel Herman, called the remarks “unacceptable,” even if they were intended as humor. A Czech member of the European Parliament, Pavel Telicka, wrote on Twitter that Mr. Zeman’s comment showed that he is not fit for office.

The prime minister, Bohuslav Sobotka, reshared a Twitter post about journalists who have been killed or attacked in Russia.

And Martin Kupka, a vice chairman of the center-right Civic Democratic Party, said the remark was inappropriate at best, given the threats and violence Russian journalists endure. “Taking into account the state of the media in Russia, the joke made by the president takes on yet another dimension,” he said. “It is very serious and all the more so inappropriate.”

An error has occurred. Please try again later.

You are already subscribed to this email.

But Mr. Zeman’s spokesman, Jiri Ovcacek, said the uproar was a manufactured controversy.

“Journalists never understand bon mots,” he said in a statement, arguing that the critics were expressing opportunistic outrage to score political points. “I expect embarrassingly upset commentaries and exasperated reactions from politicians who like to cozy up to the media.”

The comments also resonated in the Czech Republic because Mr. Zeman, a former prime minister who helped pave the way for the nation to join the European Union in 2004, has developed a warm relationship with Russia in recent years.

Press freedom is not an abstract issue here; the Czech news media has been increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few wealthy individuals, a cause for concern in a country that endured decades under Communism.

The finance minister, Andrej Babis, is the owner of Mafra, one of the most influential publishing houses in the country. In leaked recordings, he was heard discussing politicians and news coverage with a journalist who works for him, even though he has claimed that his publications are editorially independent.

This month, Mr. Sobotka offered his resignation and that of the cabinet, declaring that he could no longer work with Mr. Babis.

Mr. Zeman, whose role is largely ceremonial but who retains important powers under the Constitution, has tried to mediate. He has suggested that Mr. Sobotka alone resign — not the entire cabinet, including Mr. Babis — and be replaced by a new prime minister. Mr. Sobotka then withdrew his resignation and asked that only Mr. Babis resign, a request that requires Mr. Zeman’s approval.

Mr. Babis, a 62-year-old magnate-turned-politician who has rejected frequent comparisons to President Trump, says the controversy is part of a coordinated effort by elites to oust him from politics and stop the rise of his ANO movement, which is leading in polls before elections in October.